Why ICON (ICLR) Might Surprise This Earnings Season

Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and ICON Public Limited CompanyICLR may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report.

That is because ICON is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earnings—with the most up-to-date information possible—is a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for ICLR in this report.

In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at $1.19 per share for ICLR, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.18 per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for ICLR, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 0.85% heading into earnings season.

A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises, and outperforming the market. Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better show a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and have returned over 28% on average in annual returns (see more Top Earnings ESP stocks here).

Clearly, recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for ICON, and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report.

Confidential from Zacks

Beyond this Tale of the Tape, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report